Gordon Giltrap

Recent Major Concerts and Events

Double Vision on Friday Night Is Music Night

Friday, April 25, 2008

Friday Night has, in fact, been Music Night for half a century - first of all on the Light Programme and then on BBC Radio 2 - making it the world's longest-running 'live music' programme on radio. It features the famously versatile BBC Concert Orchestra, and is frequently broadcast from theatres and concert halls throughout the UK.

Friday 25 April

Live from the Mermaid Theatre in London, Ken Bruce presents the world's longest running live music show with guests soprano Sophie Louise Dann, baritone Tim Rogers and Double Vision (Raymond Burley and Gordon Giltrap), and the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Richard Balcombe.

If you missed the show, you can listen online here (UK only) until 1st May. Scroll down to Friday Night is Music Night link.

Gordon reports:
Ever since the date was put in the diary I was looking forward to appearing on the show with a mixture of optimism and fear! Why I hear you cry? Well, for a start the show is live and has an estimated listening figure of one million, so needless to say a LOT of pressure.

Working solo for me, is to a degree a piece of cake, but when you work along side a perfectionist and supreme virtuoso like Raymond Burley it does somewhat up the stakes. Don't get me wrong I LOVE working with Ray, he brings out the classical guitarist in me and somehow takes these tunes of mine to a higher level, but you really need to be on your toes when working with a musician, (and a classical one to boot) at that level you had better make sure that you get it right, because if you screw up you're letting two people down, and it's bad enough letting your self down.
I think I have set the scene here don't you!

Anyway Hilary and I arrived at Ray and Sian's place the night before in readiness for rehearsal on the morning of the broadcast. The pieces chosen were...Maddie Goes West, A Christmas Carol, Tears of Joy and Fast Approaching, four quite contrasting pieces and none of them particularly easy to play. We ran through each just once, and they were all note perfect. 'If we could play as well on the evening then that would be wonderful' we said.

I was using just the one instrument, my FYLDE CUSTOM, a particularly stunning sounding guitar that compliments beautifully the Double Vision sound.

We decided to let public transport take the strain on the day and caught the Oxford coach to Victoria and then from there it's just five stops on the tube to The Mermaid Theatre in the City of London.

We arrived in good time to hear the orchestra go through it's paces and to hear the two guest vocalists soprano Sophie Louise Dann, and baritone Tim Rogers rehearse. Presenter Ken Bruce arrived mid afternoon, and what great guy he is, we got on really well, and he reminded me that he played Heartsong on the show a few weeks back.

Show time arrived, and the theatre which holds over six hundred folks was completely filled to capacity. To say I was nervous would be an understatement but the nerves REALLY kicked in just prior to going back on stage to perform Tears of Joy. It's not an easy piece by anyone's standards, but miracle of miracles we got through it pretty much note perfect, and by the time we came back on for our last number - Fast Approaching, I felt that we had it in the bag.

The evening was rounded off nicely with a pint at a local pub with Ken, his daughter Katie and two neighbours of Ken's from his home village of Thame. Our agent Sue and husband Mike joined us for the event and a special thanks to them for making the effort to support these two ageing guitarists in their task.

Here's to many more nice associations with Auntie BBC.

To find out Raymond Burley's thoughts about the night, visit his website here